The Chimichanga Job
November 21, 2018 10:23 AM   Subscribe

Did the makers of The Deadpool Before Christmas steal their Princess Bride-framing device idea from a cartoonist who tweeted that exact idea to Ryan Reynolds nearly a year ago?

For Christmas this year, the makers of Deadpool 2 decided to do something cute. In order to re-release a PG version of the PG-13 film, they're framing it with a parody of The Princess Bride, complete with an adult Fred Savage.

Only one problem: cartoonist MVBramley tweeted that very (and very specific) idea directly to Ryan Reynolds nearly a year ago.

Did the Deadpool 2 team get the idea from him? Or was this just an extraordinary case of like minds thinking alike?
posted by UltraMorgnus (51 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
How is it theft if MVBramley offered/pitched the idea to Reynolds? There should definitely be a line in the credits acknowledging MVBramley's contribution, but the idea wasn't exactly kept secret.
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 10:36 AM on November 21, 2018 [8 favorites]


Is Betteridge's law of headlines a load of bunk? Click the first link to find out!
posted by hat_eater at 10:37 AM on November 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


*PG-13 version of the R-rated film
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:40 AM on November 21, 2018


Wait, the text of the post doesn't appear in the linked article, which frames it as a (potentially taken up) pitch. It feels like this post is framed to stir up controversy.
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 10:40 AM on November 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


guys guys someone said an idea on the internet
posted by gwint at 10:41 AM on November 21, 2018 [13 favorites]


Anyway, this exact thing is why writers run screaming from unsolicited suggestions.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:42 AM on November 21, 2018 [48 favorites]


Creatives should realize more than anybody that ideas are worthless. If they had value, you certainly wouldn't give them away on Twitter.
posted by ArmandoAkimbo at 10:44 AM on November 21, 2018 [16 favorites]


Yup, mentioning literally any idea to a writer or other creative is ceding any interest in the idea. The creative may have already been thinking along those lines or not, but, unless you were specifically solicited for ideas, you have no ownership. Now, go make your own thing.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:56 AM on November 21, 2018 [10 favorites]


I'm not sure stealing an idea from a tweet is a crime.

Also something something 99% execution
posted by GuyZero at 11:05 AM on November 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


TWO THINGS ON A T-SHIRT!
posted by Artw at 11:07 AM on November 21, 2018 [7 favorites]


Did the Deadpool 2 team get the idea from him? Or was this just an extraordinary case of like minds thinking alike? "It could be an amazing coincidence..."

I don't think it's particularly amazing or extraordinary. It's such an obvious idea I would be surprised if multiple people hadn't thought of it on their own.
posted by homunculus at 11:09 AM on November 21, 2018 [7 favorites]


It’s not quite “unicorns and bacon!” but it’s well within the bounds of things people would combine, yes.
posted by Artw at 11:15 AM on November 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


If it's true that there are no repercussions for taking ideas without payment, then why are writers so sensitive about having ideas pitched to them? Why would they care if it didn't matter?
posted by bleep at 11:26 AM on November 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


About half the cultural references in the movie are from the 80's. The Princess Bride is probably the only remaining thing in the 80's that's recognizable to the movie's target audience.

If it's true that there are no repercussions for taking ideas without payment, then why are writers so sensitive about having ideas pitched to them?

There are no legal repercussions, but the existence of this thread tells you why: Non-writer audiences perceive it as improper, and you have no way to prove that you had the idea before your Uber driver "pitched" it to you.
posted by 0xFCAF at 11:29 AM on November 21, 2018 [7 favorites]


Why would they care if it didn't matter?

...because they don't want the hassle of getting large-format Yelled At by a bunch of twitter people?
posted by halation at 11:30 AM on November 21, 2018 [8 favorites]


Unsuccessful lawsuits are nearly as expensive to the defendant as successful ones.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:36 AM on November 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


I mean I only thought taking ideas without attribution was wrong because I thought writers thought it was wrong.
posted by bleep at 11:42 AM on November 21, 2018


Ha! The trailer got a dig in against Nickelback! Really pushing the envelope!
posted by Metro Gnome at 11:44 AM on November 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


It is wrong! It's just not illegal.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:51 AM on November 21, 2018


Nah. If you haven’t asked someone if you can pitch, and gotten an affirmation, and you spill your idea, then you are just throwing money into the fountain. Anyone can pick it up.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:58 AM on November 21, 2018 [11 favorites]


Anyway, this exact thing is why writers editors run screaming from unsolicited suggestions.
posted by warriorqueen at 12:09 PM on November 21, 2018


Really now I'm thinking how if people are suddenly responsible for what's Tweeted at them you could just have someone Tweet all day long at rival publications and then kick up a fuss when they publish anything like that.
posted by warriorqueen at 12:13 PM on November 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


"Hey, George Lucas! You should make more Star Wars movies!" (I wish I'd thought of that 20 years ago).
posted by GeckoDundee at 12:17 PM on November 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


Actually, make that 40 years ago...
posted by GeckoDundee at 12:18 PM on November 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


I guess the point is they could afford to give the guy credit. They could even easily afford to send a little money his way. (The whole reason for this abridged cut is to add to already sizeable profits, right?) Noblesse oblige, and all that.
posted by trig at 12:58 PM on November 21, 2018


I guess the point is they could afford to give the guy credit. They could even easily afford to send a little money his way.

that's exactly how to encourage the scenario warriorqueen outlines above, though. please let's not extend the horrors of patent trolling to creative endeavour.
posted by halation at 1:02 PM on November 21, 2018 [8 favorites]


Credit and small payments create a legal risk, though -- they acknowledge some level of ownership of the idea. It gives someone ammunition to go after a bigger share of the profits, even if having the nugget of the idea is barely a contribution and nothing close to authorship. I'm not saying they would or should win, but as someone upthread said -- an unsuccessful lawsuit is still very expensive to defend.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:09 PM on November 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I mean, the guy's already in a position to complain if he wants to, and the power disparity between a major studio and some random guy is huge so it's not like he would ever succeed in going further than that. And there is a difference between someone making one tweet in good faith and someone spitting out ideas on automatic.

I don't believe in patenting or copyrighting ideas, but I do believe in giving credit.
posted by trig at 1:15 PM on November 21, 2018


This does seem like a pretty Deadpool thing to do though.
posted by bleep at 1:21 PM on November 21, 2018


I think that the more ideas that get shot past someone on a regular basis--and I would imagine that Reynolds gets thousands of tweets per day--the less likely it is that they'll remember that that one guy said it several months ago. Even before the internet era, people sent manuscripts and tapes to all the major (and most of the minor) publishers and record companies, hoping against hope that they'd win the slush pile lottery, and then file suits when a successful book or record happened to come out that used a similar trope or riff. I mean, the copyright holder of the eventual hit version could have possibly read or heard the plaintiff's. But it's really unlikely, which is why these suits usually get thrown out. (And they usually get thrown out pretty early on, thus costing a lot less than a successful suit.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:28 PM on November 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I think this seems awfully specific...it doesn't seem likely someone independently came up with the same exact idea. But then again, who knows? I see jokey reactions to things on Twitter all the time that must have felt blindingly original to the person who posted them, and within seconds a dozen variations on the same joke appear from other accounts. Maybe The Princess Bride is a huge cultural touchstone to a lot of people in a way I never dreamed. Or maybe Ryan Reynolds said, "Man, that's really funny, let's do that!" and they did it...so what? It's not like you could have made your own Deadpool movie. You don't own Deadpool. A screen credit might be nice, but you haven't lost anything if you don't get it.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:28 PM on November 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


this guy who came up with an idea about a massively popular media property referencing another massively popular media property definitely deserves some sort of credit for his creative efforts
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:34 PM on November 21, 2018 [13 favorites]


I'm not sure stealing an idea from a tweet is a crime.
It is, but not the kind of crime we're talking about there.
posted by krisjohn at 5:11 PM on November 21, 2018


I recently learned that smart megacorporations have a mail room whose job is to take all of the ideas that the public sends in and carefully burn them, far, far away from the eyes of the creators.
With respect to access, both defendants offered affidavits asserting that none of their creative people see unsolicited submissions. Hasbro produced evidence that, as a matter of course, when unsolicited submissions are received in the mailroom they are forwarded immediately to the legal department for return to the sender(s). It claims that at no time do its creative people "peek" at or become aware of unsolicited submissions. In his September 29 letter returning plaintiffs' submission, Hasbro's Corporate Secretary advised that "present policy does not permit us to accept outside submissions ... due to the heavy volume of material sent and the possibility of conflict with our own research program." It is clear that Hasbro has taken steps to try to insulate itself from suits such as it is now forced to defend. Further, despite the fact that it was Hasbro's Corporate Secretary and not its legal department that answered plaintiffs' inquiry, it appears that Hasbro generally complied with its own policy, especially given the short turnaround time between submission and return.

Disney, however, was less careful. Plaintiffs maintain that on or about October 3, Al Stratton, Merchandise Buyer for Disney World in Florida, telephoned plaintiffs, acknowledged receipt, and asked if the "Whats" were trademarked. Although plaintiffs' submission was returned via Stratton letter dated October 10, the letter advises that Stratton would keep a copy of the submission on file "in the event it could be used in the future," and further states that the plaintiffs' submission "has been discussed and reviewed by the appropriate Buyers and Managers in our Merchandising Division."[1] Plaintiffs later forwarded a similar package to defendant Disney Productions of California, but it was returned immediately.
...because sometimes you follow the damn link to the legal judgement in a syfy article on the history of disney afternoon cartoons and like, damn, there goes your afternoon.
posted by kaibutsu at 5:59 PM on November 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


From the judgment:

(a panda looks like a bear but is actually a member of the raccoon family)

I think the judge got their giant pandas and red pandas mixed up. A giant panda is most definitely a bear. The red panda used to be classified with raccoons, but genetic testing now shows they belong in their own family and are most closely related to weasels.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 6:21 PM on November 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I think they should mock this tweeter in the next movie. Payment enough!
posted by h00py at 4:00 AM on November 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


I have no opinion on this except disappointment that any energy is being expended on more Deadpool material instead of a Domino spin-off film.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:06 AM on November 22, 2018


So, I'm at home with the flu, so I'm going to be a bit grumpy, but watching that clip it seems that one side effect of Domino's good luck is that a car drives into a gas station which then explodes, so a non-specified (but non-zero) number of random passers-by burn to death.

Yes, it's the Deadpool sequel, I know, but still.

I should probably lie down again.
posted by Grangousier at 4:31 AM on November 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


No, you're exactly right. Domino's good luck = somebody else's bad luck.
posted by ArmandoAkimbo at 10:35 AM on November 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


I recently learned that smart megacorporations have a mail room whose job is to take all of the ideas that the public sends in and carefully burn them, far, far away from the eyes of the creators.

Not just the smart ones, all of them. Any company that can afford even a single lawyer has a publically stated policy that any unsolicited submissions get pipelined directly into the incinerator without a single person ever laying eyes of them.
posted by sideshow at 10:55 AM on November 22, 2018


Snakes on a plane.
posted by device55 at 2:31 PM on November 22, 2018


No, you're exactly right. Domino's good luck = somebody else's bad luck.

Oh. So... excuse me, I'm sure this is all talked to death in the movie itself, but didn't see it and the last time I read X-Men Jean Grey was just dying for the... second? ... time. I think. John Byrne was still drawing it but Terry Austin just left. Or the other way round. Anyway, it surely follows that if she - Domino - wants to do the maximum good for people in general and in aggregate she should probably spend the rest of her life keeping as still as possible in a darkened room and stay away from fights, altercations and games of chance?

I was a big fan - the big fan most likely - of Chance in a Million, a 1980s situation comedy starring Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn based on a similar idea. Can't remember if anything exploded but the hamster death toll was appalling.
posted by Grangousier at 2:48 PM on November 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


Or she could go deep into enemy territory, buy lottery tickets and play all the slot machines, I suppose.

There's not enough of an opportunity for kicking people in that strategy to satisfy the younger audience, though, is there?
posted by Grangousier at 3:14 PM on November 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


if she - Domino - wants to do the maximum good for people in general and in aggregate she should probably spend the rest of her life keeping as still as possible

I don't think doing the maximum good for people in general is part of Domino's character.
posted by eye of newt at 5:58 PM on November 22, 2018 [3 favorites]


We can at least agree her superpower isn’t very cinematic.
posted by um at 8:05 PM on November 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


If you're looking for someone doing "the maximum good for people in general" the Deadpool movies are probably not the place to find it.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:37 AM on November 23, 2018 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I mean WW2 killed somewhere between 100-200 million people in total. If you get a chance to kill baby Hitler you do not hesitate.
posted by um at 2:19 AM on November 23, 2018


But given that the aim of the endeavour is to defeat someone - in this case it's presumably Josh Brolin - and assuming there's a sort of atmosphere of negative luck around her offsetting her inherent good luck (which I'm inferring), surely the least labour-intensive way of doing it would be to stand next to them (perhaps while they're asleep or eating or watching television or during a particularly involved bowel movement and so they're within striking distance of her Miasma of Misfortune) with a large bag full of scratch cards, revealing the matched numbers until he's defeated by the universe itself. In addition to which: profit!

This is why I don't get to write movies.
posted by Grangousier at 4:01 AM on November 23, 2018


I don't think there's actually an equal-and-opposite-reaction luck thing, Domino is just lucky in whatever she does. If someone tries to shoot her, their gun jams. If she steps into the road, all cars swerve out of the way. If she's flung into the sky, she lands on something soft. Not all of these result in collateral damage (just the ones which look the most cinematic).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:39 AM on November 23, 2018


It all sets her on a course of action where she gets to save some kids so, um, maybe they’re better or more meaningful kids than any that got blowed up by her swathe of destruction.

Hey, Panda!
posted by Artw at 11:24 AM on November 23, 2018


When I get an email from a well meaning fan about an idea (usually with the subject line "a story idea for you" or something along that line) I immediately delete it unread and don't acknowledge I have received it. Also, I make it publicly clear on a semi regular basis that this is my policy.
posted by jscalzi at 3:57 AM on November 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


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